


As the Story Goes

by homosociallyyours



Series: The Sweetest Thing [4]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Fairy Tale Elements, M/M, Magical Realism, Needles, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other: See Story Notes, suggestion of hypnosis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25550611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosociallyyours/pseuds/homosociallyyours
Summary: When the scent blockers he'd hoped to use don't work, Harry tries to figure out something else about the strange situation with his and Louis' scents. The internet only has links to a fairy tale and one peculiar business. Could either of those be of any use?
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Series: The Sweetest Thing [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828744
Comments: 7
Kudos: 33
Collections: Prompt 4.4: Shot





	As the Story Goes

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a Wordplay prompt challenge for the prompt "shot". To read the amazing fics that were written by the others on this prompt, [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/shot), and to see all fics written as part of the challenge (including years 1-3), [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wordplay_fic_challenge/works). You can also find the masterpost for this year’s challenge [here](https://wordplayfics.tumblr.com/post/622306139518926848/wordplay-2020-every-week-for-five-weeks-a-prompt).
> 
> Please see end notes if the last two tags are troubling-- I'll give a bit more explanation!

Harry turned around, marching into the toilets to check that his blocker strip was properly affixed even though he was certain that it had been along his walk to work. The door opened and Niall stuck his head inside, watching Harry carefully. 

“Y’alright in here?” Harry shrugged. “Those things didn’t work for you either?” Niall scrunched his nose. 

“They did on the walk over. It was weird to pass by people without picking anything up from them, so I really noticed it. But then once I got here--” 

“Louis was the same. He had the kind that block everyone, and I had him get close to me. He couldn’t pick up anything. But then you walked in, and, well. He noticed.” 

“I don’t know what to do, Niall! These stupid blockers were the first thing I thought of, but what else is there?” 

Niall leaned against the wall, pulling his phone out. “Let’s go to ye olde internet and see what he’s got to say about it, shall we?” He tapped something out onto his phone as Harry stood by, waiting for the results. 

“Well?” 

“Apparently your situation only exists in fairy tales. Everything that came up was related to the one that almost got made into a Disney film recently.” 

“The one about the frog?” 

“Yeah, that one!” Niall opened something up on his phone and handed it to Harry. “That’s the original fairy tale there.” 

Harry read through the story to refresh his memory. In it, an alpha prince is cursed to lose his scent unless he finds true love by his eighteenth birthday. At sixteen, he’s turned into a frog in the hopes that changing his form will allow him to escape the original curse, but the plan backfires. His scent disappears to everyone in the kingdom when he’s changed, and they immediately forget that he was ever the prince. 

The prince fears all hope is lost-- he’s a frog in hiding with no proper sense of smell and no way to communicate with anyone --when a scent fills the air around him. It’s lovely, and he follows it to its source, an omega who appears to be looking for something by the water. When the omega spots the frog, she gathers him up in her hands, inhaling deeply. Somehow the frog prince knows he’s found his true love, but he has no way to communicate this with the omega. 

The rest of the story reveals that the omega is the child of cruel parents who reject her because she wasn’t born an alpha or beta. She takes the frog in as her only companion, keeping him safe and well fed and talking with him every night. Eventually the omega kisses the frog, reversing the spell that kept him in frog form as well as the curse that was placed on them, and the two live happily ever after. 

“Am I the frog? Or the girl?” Harry asked, looking up from Niall’s phone. 

“Does it matter?” 

“Also, who’s cursed-- me or Louis? Is it both of us? How would we break it?” 

“Sorry H, these really aren’t questions I’m up for right now. I can keep googling it. Or you could, I’ll train Louis again today.” 

“That might actually be good? At least for a bit. Maybe I’ll figure something out.” 

When Harry stepped back into the kitchen, he was hit by a wave of Louis’ scent, the vanilla tinged with brown sugar and allspice now. It was a heavenly distraction. He turned to look at Louis and could tell he felt the same. Harry gave him a wave from across the room. 

“Sorry about the blockers not working,” he said, pointing to his own nose. Louis wrinkled his own nose in response. “Gonna see if I can find anything online about it.” 

“I-- actually do you mind if I’m closer? Don’t wanna feel like I’m shouting at you.” Harry nodded, and Louis came closer, still giving him space but near enough to speak at a regular volume. “I looked last night. Most of what I found was variations on that frog story, you know the--” 

“Just re-read it actually,” Harry said with a laugh. “Not very helpful.” 

Louis shifted his weight, looking away from Harry for a moment before giving a half-hearted shrug. “Yeah, guess not.” He almost sounded disappointed, and Harry was ready to ask him why when Niall interrupted, stealing him away to start his training for the day. 

Harry went to the office to start his search, Louis’ scent still clinging to his nostrils in spite of the distance between them. As the morning went on, Harry found himself growing increasingly frustrated. Variations of the frog story filled up the first few pages of results, and beyond that he found a few essays that referenced it. There was nothing to hint at anyone else having experienced something like this-- no forums or WebMD articles --and after a couple hours of fruitless searching, Harry was ready to give up. 

He decided to check one more page of search results before stopping, immediately noticing a link at the top of the page that was different from anything he’d seen so far. It was an ad for a business called “Scentsible Relations” that promised help for alphas, omegas, and betas who were having “scent related difficulties.” The website didn’t offer much more information, but it did have a link to email for a free consultation. Harry figured it was worth a try. He typed up a message describing what he and Louis were experiencing and hit send, not expecting anything to come of it right away. 

That’s why the phone call he received only ten minutes later was such a surprise. He normally didn’t answer unknown numbers, but something told him he should this time. After saying hello, the person at the other end of the line began speaking immediately and at a very fast pace. 

“Mr. Styles! So glad you reached out to us and we  _ do  _ have the answer to all your problems. That is, we should have the answers, but we need to see you face to face. Both yourself and Mr. Tomlinson, and the sooner the better. Can we expect you today?” 

“This is, uh, Scentsible Relations? I didn’t think I gave you my phone number.” 

“Oh? You did, you certainly did! It was part of the form and you’ve forgotten. Happens all the time. Now, today? We have availability, well,  _ now  _ is best, but we could squeeze you in later too. Or tomorrow.” 

The person paused and Harry shook his head to clear it before calling out for Louis. He could track Louis’ movement by the strength of his scent, and by the time Louis was at the door Harry’s mouth was watering. He had to swallow before he could speak. 

“I might’ve found something. They say they can help and that we could come in some time today. Wanted to know what you thought.” 

Louis took a breath, clearly forgetting himself for a moment, and shivered a little on the exhale. “Yeah, I mean you know best in terms of the work. But if they have an idea, I suppose we could see them?” 

Harry considered for a moment. It wasn’t one of their busier days, typically, and he was certain Niall would want them to get things settled if they could. He put his phone back to his ear and agreed to come in soon, writing down the address he was given and giving Louis a thumbs up. Before he could respond or thank the person on the phone, they’d hung up. Odd. 

As Harry had hoped, Niall was amenable to letting Harry and Louis go try to get their situation resolved. He’d called it a problem, but Harry really couldn’t agree. The more time they spent together, the deeper Louis’ scent became. Harry had started to pick up subtle shifts that he assumed corresponded to Louis’ moods or feelings, and he imagined the same thing was happening for Louis too. 

For Harry, it was a bit like sitting in a bakery, all the luscious smells swirling through the air. Tempting, yes, but also deeply satisfying in its own way. When they stepped outside to walk to Scentsible Relations, he couldn’t help but let himself get a little closer to Louis. Louis seemed to notice, giving Harry a smirk, but didn’t try to move away. He might’ve even stepped closer himself. 

They soon arrived at a seemingly vacant storefront, the glass inside covered with brown paper with the words “pardon our progress” written on it in block letters. When Harry tried the handle, the door opened, revealing a well-kept waiting room. A man sat behind a desk typing rapidly, not looking up as they walked inside. 

“You must be the ones who called,” he said, still typing away. “Your consultant will be out momentarily.” 

“They called me, actually,” Harry whispered to Louis. His scent had taken on a toasted note, and Harry considered asking about it until a woman in a white coat stepped out and beckoned for them to come into the room with her. 

Even before they’d sat down, the woman started talking to them. Her voice droned a little, its steady pace and even tone washing over Harry and making it hard to follow her words. Harry found himself nodding along in spite of not really catching what she was saying, the ease of her voice so difficult to challenge. 

“And with a simple injection, it’ll all go away. Neither of you will be bothered by the other’s scent or pheromones again. Terribly easy process, and 100% effective with very few side effects.” She paused, blinking robotically at them for a moment before turning around and picking up a needle. Louis dug his fingers into Harry’s arm. 

“If we could have a moment, please?” Louis asked, laughing nervously. “Bit scared of needles myself, need a little pep talk.” 

The woman tilted her head to the side and then nodded. “I’ll give you a moment.” She left, closing the door behind her, and Louis waited for a beat before turning to look at Harry. 

“I think we should go.” Louis’ voice was urgent, the toasted smell from before almost turning acrid like burnt toast. Harry couldn’t understand why. 

“She’ll give us the shot and it’ll be fine.” Even as he said it, Harry knew he didn’t quite believe it himself. Louis shook his head, taking both of Harry’s hands and giving them a firm squeeze. Like hard sugar shattering, something cracked apart inside of him and he shook his own head in return. “Why-- how--” 

“There’ll be time for it later. For now we have to get out of here.” Louis stood, moving to push at the walls of the room they were in until he found whatever he was looking for. “This should work. Take my hand.” 

Harry heard the door handle turn as he stood, grabbing Louis’ hand and holding tight. He tumbled forward, the tugging at his arm so much stronger than he’d expected would be possible from Louis, and around him everything was dark for a long moment until suddenly they were back on the street in the daylight. Harry was breathless and confused, staring at Louis’ hand in his own. 

“This way,” Louis said, pulling him forward with a normal amount of strength. Harry followed, glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone was chasing after them and grateful that they weren’t. They soon came to a park that Harry didn’t know, Louis leading him to a bench and sitting down. 

Louis’ scent had calmed, the toasty aroma replaced by the more familiar sweet vanilla notes Harry knew so well. “Explain,” Harry said after taking a few calming breaths. 

“Right. This is going to be a lot to take in, and it wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but-- remember the fairy tale? The frog?” Harry nodded, waiting for Louis to continue. “That’s you.” 

Harry laughed. “I’m not a frog! I’m not even an alpha. And definitely not a prince.” 

“How can I explain this? First off the story changed some important things. The prince was never an alpha. And-- more importantly --the curse wasn’t actually broken with the kiss. Or, well. It’s not always broken.” 

“Not always?” 

“It’s--” Louis sighed, forehead wrinkling. “Certain stories repeat themselves, ‘bit like a time loop? And when they do, well, certain things can change. Sometimes big things. And in our particular story, you came here.” 

“Our? You’re the girl? And I’m-- but I’ve been here, I was  _ born _ here. And I’m twenty-six. How?” 

“I know you’ve got a million questions, and I can’t really answer all of them. I’d hoped the people contacting you were going to help us, but they’re the ones behind the curse. And now that they know we’ve run they might be looking for us.” 

“What are we supposed to do?” Harry’s chest tightened, and he let Louis draw him close, his scent and his arms soothing Harry immediately. 

“I might know a place. Do you trust me?” 

Harry nodded. None of it made sense, but he knew he trusted Louis. 

**Author's Note:**

> Needles are tagged for a mention but nobody gets poked, and the suggestion of Harry being momentarily hypnotized (not by Louis) can be avoided by skipping the paragraph that begins "Even before they sat down..." 
> 
> Big thanks to [Dee](jacaranda-bloom.tumblr.com) for giving this a quick read through to make sure it made sense, and as always thanks to [Sus](lululawrence.tumblr.com) for running the wordplay challenge! 
> 
> And thank YOU for reading!! The story has taken a little twist and I hope you enjoyed it. I think I may be able to wrap it up next week, but we'll see. Fic post coming soon, I promise.


End file.
